Traffic is the Penguin Little Black Classics No.6. It features two essays by John Ruskin. The first, “Traffic,” was a lecture published in his book The Crown of Wild Olive (1866). The second essay, “The Roots of Honour,” was part of his book Unto This Last (1862). John Ruskin is best known for his art criticism, but these essays reflect his broader cultural criticism. Though there is some reference to architecture, these essays unpack the values embedded in nineteenth century England, values which are not entirely dissimilar to our own.
“Traffic” was a speech which no doubt shocked the audience. Imagine you have invited a famous art critic to come and say a few words about design relevant to an Exchange that your town is building. Yet early in the speech, Ruskin tells you that “I do not care about this Exchange—because you don’t; and because you know perfectly well I cannot make you.” It seems an inauspicious beginning.
“Traffic” takes on the burghers of Bradford. Ruskin accuses them of wanting “the right thing for your money.” But taste is not something that can simply be purchased and the different options for architecture should not be flippantly picked between. According to Ruskin, “Taste is not only a part and an index of morality;–it is the ONLY morality.” Much of the speech backs up this bold statement. It seems like it cannot possibly be true, but Ruskin points out “What we like determines what we are, and is the sign of what we are; and to teach taste is inevitably to form character.” The implications of this are astounding. What does this mean for the shows we watch? For the books and art we teach and appreciate?
As his speech goes on, Ruskin tells his audience that they cannot easily select an appropriate architecture for their Exchange. All forms of architecture reflect a set of values. Greece had so many temples to Athena—the goddess of wisdom. But Ruskin believes his England worships “Britannia of the Market,” who we can also call the “Goddess of Getting-on.” There will be no beautiful architecture that can reflect that. Any beautiful architecture selected for the Exchange will be an appropriation at best and will not fit its surroundings. Despite writing from the nineteenth century, Ruskin seems to be hitting close to home for ourselves.
Ruskin’s essay “The Roots of Honour” further critiques the market-based value system he saw encroaching everywhere. He considers it a “delusion” of modern political economy “that an advantageous code of social action may be determined irrespectively of the influence of social affection.” In page after page, Ruskin takes down the same kind of economic efficiency argument we still face in too many settings. He writes that “no human actions were ever intended by the Maker of men to be guided by balances of expediency, but by balances of justice.” He writes about the relationship between workers and factory owners. But, perhaps most importantly, he writes about the ways in which affection both makes for a more pleasing society and improves economic outcomes.
Ruskin’s critiques are still capable of stinging today. Twenty-first century America runs on many of the same ideas that Ruskin attacks. However, Ruskin’s response fits easily into neither liberal nor conservative American politics. That gives his words even more power to help us reconsider our own operating systems.
Penguin’s Little Black Classics have been selected to showcase the range and depth of the Penguin catalog. But why is that range and depth important? Why are some people so obsessed with reading older books when newer books are always coming out? A book like Traffic is a good example of why books from the past have value for the present and why we should not disregard the authors and philosophers from times before our own.
“There’s nothing new under the sun.” It seems both obviously true and obviously false. Yes, in some ways people have the same human experiences now that they have always had. But no one in 1200 ever drove a car, much less a tank. No one in the Bible ever ate a potato—those were only in the Americas back then. AI was not something we talked about affecting our daily experience even five years ago, now every teacher needs to know something about it and it’s the basis of Olympics commercials. Ruskin, Epictetus, Socrates, Ulysses S. Grant—they have nothing to say about space colonization or ChatGPT or which apps will best help increase your personal productivity.
But if we consider most (maybe all) new things to be capable of categorization, we soon realize that the thinkers of the past have much to say to us about most things. How do we respond to cultural changes? What does it mean to conserve something? How do we respond to new technology? How do we respond to disruption? Well, there are people from many times and places who can offer us insights, sometimes answers, for those questions. And even when the answers might differ—different cultures see some things differently—that offers us a relief in which we can better assess the answers of our time and place. A book doesn’t have to read like it was “written yesterday,” to be valuable today. Sometimes being written “ages ago” is actually even better. It’s not that all good insights come from the past, but our best insights will engage the thought and wisdom of the past.
In the case of No.6, the Penguin Little Black Classics showcase more than the remarkable range of the Penguin collections. Traffic is an opportunity for a new era to appreciate John Ruskin. It is also an opportunity for even his opponents to appreciate the value of a coherent point of view directly addressing culture and offering an example of what it means to evaluate one’s surroundings.